Try to answer this question about one of the most significant cases in U.S. Supreme Court history:
The 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated the public schools – did it a) ensure that black students had access to the same educational advantages as white students, or b) assure that educational decisions in the public schools would not be based on race?
If you answered “both,” you might be right, but it wouldn’t help you come to a decision in a subsequent student assignment case, PICS v. Seattle. In this case, a divided Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the diversity plans of the Seattle and Kentucky’s Louisville public schools were unconstitutional. And that’s because justices on both sides of the 5-4 decision invoked the famous Topeka, Kan., case and its legacy in justifying their decisions
“Fifty-years later … is PICS v. Seattle the New Brown v. Board of Education” was the title of this breakout session at Saturday’s Leadership Conference. It was led by Jay Worona, general counsel of the New York State School Boards Association, and Francisco M. Negrón Jr., general counsel of NSBA. And yes, Negrón said, the title was meant to be a little facetious because the opposing sides in the later case disagreed vehemently on just what the legacy of Brown meant.
For dissenting justices Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens, the two districts’ student assignment plans, which used race in some instances to diversity popular schools, was in keeping with the reasoning of Brown.
“[The] history books do not tell stories of white children struggling to attend black schools…,” Stevens wrote.
But Justice Clarence Thomas, a member of the court majority, characterized Breyer’s dissent as “[d]isfavoring a color blind interpretation of the Constitution.”
So does this mean school districts cannot consider race when making student assignments? Actually no, Negrón said. In trying to diversify schools, districts can still consider race, as long as it is part of a well-reasoned decision that also involves other factors, such as socioeconomic status, geographic location, and parental education levels. What schools may not do, he said, is to use race to determine where an individual student goes to school.
The key is to consider the educational advantages of diversity, rather than diversity of its own sake.
“You should think about diversity as something that academically benefits all of your students,” Negrón said.
For more information, see the NSBA publication Achieving Educational Excellence for All: A Guide to Diversity-Related Policy Strategies for School Districts.
